


Role Reversal: Goal in the Machine

by Jayalaw



Category: Deponia (Video Games)
Genre: A lot - Freeform, F/M, Rufus dies
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-27
Updated: 2020-02-27
Packaged: 2021-02-22 14:41:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,920
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22917763
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jayalaw/pseuds/Jayalaw
Summary: In game three, Rufus accidentally poisons Goal with truth serum during a tense scene. What if it was the other way around, and Goal ended up poisoning Rufus?
Relationships: Goal/Rufus (Deponia)
Comments: 1
Kudos: 14





	Role Reversal: Goal in the Machine

The problem with loving a trash baby was that it was like having a vampire platypus for a pet. You had to keep an eye on your platypus before it sunk its fangs into an electric cord and became a charred platypoo.   
  
Goal had scribbled at her report, working to cover up the weirder parts of the truth. She wanted Rufus to play the part of Cletus perfectly, to ensure they made it to the council. Then she had turned around, Rufus had vanished, and the bed was not made. The open door let in a draft and a stale smell of coffee from the corridor.   
  
She walked outside, breathing. While her implant was fixed, Doc had warned her that sudden stress could risk another malfunction. Maybe she and Rufus shouldn't have left. Rufus had been upset about being treated like an idiot, but they needed a doctor, for Goal. She needed to not split in three again.   
  
Shouting, and the whirrs of a frustrated Tidybot being made to clean spilled coffee for an eternity. Goal quickened her pace. She stopped on the scene: the camera terminal, and soldiers pointing their guns at Rufus. He shone white on the dance floor.   
  
Argus had caught Rufus messing with the cameras. Goal had scurried after them, her feet silent against the carpet. They didn't catch sight of her as the Organon marched Rufus down the corridor. They examined his hair under the Cletus suit.   
  
No one had noticed her. Presumably, it was because Rufus was taking that much attention. He was always a spotlight stealer. She hoped to keep it that way.  
  
She spotted an interrogation machine; memories came of climbing into them as a child, and her father pulling out. Just maybe, she would fit. Goal hadn't grown that much since she was a girl. She hopped in, just as a glass lid came down. It was a two-way mirror; anyone inside could look outside, but no one could see in and notice interlopers. It was a design flaw no one had sought to manipulate.   
  
The lid snapped shut. Goal sat up straight. Right; the design flaw was used as a punishment for claustrophobic soldiers.  
  
Her timing was perfect; Cletus marched in, with Donna in tow. He was scolding her for being too loud. An Organon soldier appearing cut Goal's relief at being hidden short.  
  
"Ah, there you are!" Cletus said.   
  
"I was about to say the same thing," the soldier replied. He hefted his gun.  
  
"I have something urgent to say; I am the REAL Cletus."   
  
"We know; we caught an impostor," the soldier said. "No matter. Goal is more important. Will you resist coming with me?"   
  
"Cletus, you idiot!" Goal shouted. "They're going to kill you!"  
  
"Resist? I INSIST upon it!" Cletus declared.   
  
Goal banged the walls of the machine. He couldn't hear her. The glass was soundproof. Cletus and Donna followed the soldier, Donna clanking the metal. Goal craned her ears and braced for the telltale shot. Before she could hear it, the machine started moving toward the bridge. Goal braced herself against the glass walls. She wished this came with seatbelts.   
  
The machine lurched to a stop. Goal caught her breath, and gasped. Argus had strapped Rufus to a table and held it semi-vertically. Rufus didn't look hurt, but his hair was ruffled.   
  
"How did you get on the ship?" Argus asked. "Did you have an accomplice?"  
  
"I have one accomplice; my genius brain!" Rufus declared.   
  
Goal swallowed her groan. Of all times for Rufus to get all egotistical. While it was noble of him to leave her out of this, it wasn't getting him out of those shackles.   
  
"You know we do have truth serum." Argus gestured at the machine, which lifted a syringe. "And you are disposable to us. The longer you talk, the longer you live. So tell me, how did you get onto the ship?"  
  
"Tell me how you're okay with letting thousands of Deponians die," Rufus said. "You seem to be pretty okay with that."   
  
"You were once okay with it." Argus's voice was cold.   
  
"I lied, okay?" Rufus yelled. "It may be a crummy planet, but it's _my_ crummy planet. What's your excuse for wanting to blow it up?"  
  
"Oh, I have no excuse. Only a desire to right wrongs. And deep down, you are exactly like me and the rest of the Organon."  
  
"Yeah right. I'm much better in the looks department."   
  
Argus placed his hands on his helmet. When he removed it, Rufus and Goal gasped at the same time. His skin was dark-brown and weathered, and he had a buzz-cut, but otherwise the look in his eyes and his nose were identical.   
  
"You, you're like Cletus?" Rufus said.   
  
"No. Bailiff Argus, the right hand of the prime controller Ulysses." The needle came closer. "Of course a bumpkin like you wouldn't know Ulysses, but he is the actual monster in this play. He's the reason your planet is blowing up."   
  
Goal placed a hand over her mouth. She knew Ulysses. But it didn't sound like him. It's not something he would do.  
  
"He would lead to an entire race being exterminated to benefit a privileged few. I know Ulysses. It is what he does."   
  
"Then let Goal and me go to Elysium!" Rufus leaned forward. "Instead of you trying to blow me up, why don't we all tell them Deponia is inhabited?"   
  
"He already knows." Argus's voice sent ice down Goal's back. "And I wouldn't trust a blundering would-be hero like you. You're just in this to save your own skin and are using a guileless Elysian."   
  
"That's not true!"  
  
"Is it?" The needle tip rested against Rufus's neck. "Maybe I should give you a dose of sodium amytal and see if you change your tune?"   
  
Goal studied the buttons. None of them had labels. She had no idea what did which. But if that needle stuck Rufus, he would have more to worry about than if he confessed anything.   
  
"I'm going to convince Goal that she should let _me_ impersonate Cletus," Argus explained. "I am the perfect choice for this mission because I am not a selfish oaf. If she doesn't agree, we can collect her from her rooms and take the ascension codes by force."   
  
Goal wrestled with the controls. As if luck was giving her a break, the needle flipped away. She released a breath that was making her lungs hurt from holding it.  
  
"What are you doing?" Argus pressed a remote. The needle returned to Rufus's neck.   
  
"Come on." Goal pressed the buttons again. Again the needle moved. She didn't know how long she could keep doing it.  
  
"You infernal machine!" Argus banged on the glass. "Stop doing that!"  
  
Goal tried to jab something into Argus. He was standing so close. He pressed his remote. It spun in the machine's hand.   
  
"Enough of this!" Argus grabbed the needle by the handle. It squished into Rufus's neck as he injected it.  
  
"NO!" Goal smashed the buttons.   
  
The machine started rocking back and forth. It then rolled on its side, taking Rufus with it. Goal flew off the buttons panel.   
  
"I want Goal to be happy," he muttered.  
  
"This machine is malfunctioning!" Argus shouted. "Throw it and the ruffian off!"   
  
He yelped then because a saw came out and grazed at his leg. Then it rolled against the bridge.  
  
The bridge's window broke, and the machine fell in a shower of shards. Goal banged her head against the glass lid, not knowing which way was up or down. Rufus fell besides the machine, his eyes lolling. Argus's screams spun above them.   
  
"I love Goal," he mouthed, as the clouds parted them.   
  
Goal reached for him. The glass separating them didn't break. Soon they fell into the clouds, and he vanished.  
  


* * *

  
  
It was a long fall. She screamed the whole way down until her voice gave out. Then there were ragged sobs and waiting for the moment where they would hit the dirt, and her implant would get damaged again. It was inevitable. She could remember falling the first two times, and waking up hours afterward.   
  
She lost sight of Rufus. He had survived longer falls. But no one could survive a drug overdose when the doctors were working for the Organon or back on the ground. Doc had mended her mind. But he wouldn't do the same for Rufus.  
  
A crash interrupted her. The machine had landed on top of some glass tubes. They were large enough to hold people.   
  
Gal looked down. A silhouette stood under, a skullish grin visible.  
  
"Oh, company!" The man reached out. "That's nice!"  
  
"Can you help me!" Goal's shriek was barely a murmur through the glass. Still, it seemed that Hermes knew what she wanted.   
  
"Right." He offered his hand. "Can you walk?"   
  
She tested her legs on the air. They moved as normally as before, though open cuts stung.   
  
"Yes," she said.   
  
"What is your name, young lady?"  
  
"Goal. And yours?"  
  
"Hermes." His eyeball popped out; he put it back in. Goal shied back.  
  
"This is bad," she said, surveying the damage.  
  
"No, this is wonderful," Hermes said. "You are alive! Isn't that fantastic?"  
  
Goal reassessed. Several paper cuts made her skin sting. But that could be treated, even with Deponian diseases. She flexed her fingers. And she wiped them against her suit.   
  
"It is good to be alive," she started, "but Rufus isn't."   
  
"Rufus?" Hermes blinked at her. "You know him?"   
  
"Yes," Goal said. Her knees buckled. "Argus killed him. I tried to stop, but-"  
  
"Typical Argus," Hermes said. "He was made to be a killer. Do you want peppermint tea? It always helps me."   
  
Goal's mouth opened. Nothing came out. She took a moment to open her throat.  
  
"Yes, tea would be nice," she croaked.   
  
"You can drink it while I explain everything." Hermes guided her along the path. "It's a good thing you didn't die. Don't worry about Rufus."   
  
Goal shook her head. Worrying about Rufus was all she seemed to do these days.  
  
The place looked like a ghost town. A fast food stand stunk of stale grease, and there were conveyor belts that moved along.   
  
"What is this place?" she asked as Hermes as they walked.  
  
"Welcome to my humble abode," he said. "This used to be the facility where the Organon was created. A clone factory."   
  
Goal stopped. The wind whistled past them, and carried vampire platypi. They flapped past, smelling of dried blood.   
  
"What?" she asked.   
  
"Elysians aren't told about the origins of their soldiers. And why would they be? No one would want to know all of their soldiers are clones. Expendable, fleshy bodies."  
  
"I don't understand." Goal surveyed the belts. "You made _people_ here? To be _soldiers_?"   
  
"They were people, built to die. Rufus was one of my series of prototypes that predated the mass production of the organon. Only three of them survived: prototype A, prototype C, and prototype R."   
  
"A," Goal said. "Argus. Oh, my gods. You made Argus. And..."  
  
"Cletus," he finished. "And prototype R, Rufus."   
  
Goal looked for anything that resembled a chair. She settled for the stone railing. Her fingers gripped the weathered concrete. She wondered if she would slip.   
  
"I know this must be a lot to take in," Hermes continued. "You're an Elysian, aren't you? I was one too, once."   
  
"Yes. Cletus is my fiance," she said. "Or was. He was a clone all this time? Rufus too? The man I loved was made in a factory?"   
  
"If it's any comfort, Cletus was built for charisma. He is quite charming."  
  
"I don't love Cletus anymore," she muttered.   
  
Hermes's eyeball popped out. Goal recoiled. He popped it back in. That was much worse.  
  
"I named Rufus 'R' for his red hair," he said. "I thought I could tell apart the clones by their hair color. But I never managed to make hair colors that lasted past puberty. And there were other flaws."  
  
"What flaws?" her voice came out harshly.   
  
"They were meant to be dispensable soldiers. So I took away their respect for life. Unfortunately, that meant a lot of them were not afraid of death. There were a lot of accidents."  
  
That explained a lot, actually. Goal considered all of these facts, cold and hard like the stone she clung.   
  
"Do you have anything stronger than tea?" she asked.   
  
"Certainly. Does that mean you want one?"   
  
Goal nodded. The men she loved were all the same or at least had the same genetic source material. Her father had commissioned them to build an army. He had wanted Argus, who rebelled. Argus, who wanted to be more than fodder for a space cannon.  
  
Father had lied to her. He had lied to all the Elysians about where the Organon came from. How could a person do that?  
  
She closed her eyes. This was not the time to mourn a father who had become a stranger in a span of five minutes. Elysium was still going to blow up Deponia.   
  
"We need to save Rufus," she said. "This cloning technology, that can turn the tide for the Resistance. Does it still work?"   
  
"It does!" Hermes brightened. "I can easily make another Rufus or all the Rufuses you like."   
  
"I only need one," Goal said. "And we can still save Deponia. But I need your help. And the strongest drink you have."   
  


* * *

  
  
  
"You saved him." Toni's voice came flat. "Doc and Hermes filled me in on the details."   
  
Goal nodded. She polished her gun. Seagull had taken over the Resistance, and had apparently tried to turn them against Rufus. He hadn't anticipated on seeing Goal return, or her notifying the Resistance that Seagull had tried to sell her out to the Organon. Much like his son, Seagull had only seem a body rather than a mind. They were deferring authority to her. Rufus's clone still needed necessary memories, and he was getting a debriefing from Janoff and the others. Goal had never realized that Rufus could be so quiet.   
  
They were watching the sun set over the clone lab. Hermes had taken orders to build an army, one of the specialists that the Resistance needed. There was a sqaudron of Docs, all ready to play the part of medic and inventors. Hermes was consolidating food supplies to make more foot soldiers.   
  
"Why? I was just entering inner peace permanently without worrying about him."   
  
Goal couldn't help but give a wan smile. That seemed to be the consensus among the Resistance. Bozo had been pretty upset to lose his cutter, as well as his health. He was still shivering from time to time. Goal apologized to him on Rufus's behalf, for walking away. Though now that the Organon had been at the hotel, it would have been worse if they had all been caught.  
  
"He gets in your head. There's something endearing about the way he keeps trying. And he never gives up."   
  
"That's his biggest fault." Toni sat next to her. "The man doesn't know when to stop. And for all his posturing, he's still a boy. Just a boy with an oversized trenchcoat and ego to boot."  
  
"He didn't give up on me when my mind split and my Lady side decided to join Cletus," Goal said. "I owed it to him. Since I got him killed, after all."  
  
"You did everyone else a favor," Toni responded dryly. "There would be fewer explosions in the world."   
  
Goal tried not to laugh. A sob came out instead. It had been a very trying few days.   
  
"There's one thing that you and Rufus have in common. You're both utter pains in the ass." Toni wiped the barrel of her gun. "That day when you fell into Kuvaq was one of the worst things that could have happened."   
  
"What made you fall in love with him?" Goal hugged herself.   
  
"I never said I was in love." Toni gripped the barrel so her fingers turned red. "I felt sorry for him."   
  
"He got in your head, didn't he?"   
  
"Well, I thought I could change him," Toni admitted. "He was left homeless after his father decided to jump ship on the town. You don't leave someone to starve in the cold. But he never grew up, and I had to. We all did."   
  
"Hermes said he was programmed to remain immature." Goal stared at her fingers. "He wasn't supposed to be more than a mindless soldier. But the prototype went wrong."   
  
"Don't make me feel sorry for him again. He gave me bad anxiety."   
  
"Rufus acts the way he does because he was made to die, and to serve Elysians," Goal said. "Hermes explained it to me. What went wrong was that Rufus ended up in Kuvaq."   
  
"That did go wrong," Toni replied.   
  
"But if not for him, you all wouldn't know that Deponia is in danger."   
  
"Urgh." Toni wiped her forehead. "Don't remind me. We're all going to be blown up, and all we can do is hope to get you up there to convince them otherwise, and your brain is full of holes."  
  
"Not anymore," Goal promised. "I'm not going to let anyone mess with my implant again. Not even Rufus."   
  
The sun went down over the muddy ocean. Soon, Goal would go to see her love. She'd have to admit that she had fallen for him, and comfort him since he was convinced he had woken up in hell. Then they would save the planet, on her terms.


End file.
